Quote Of The Week

Courage is tiny pieces of fear all glued together. ~Irisa Hail

A gal that lives in Nicollet who completed her chemo for breast cancer around the time that I was diagnosed had this quote posted on her Caring Bridge site. I think it is worth sharing.

Counting Down

Our four new to be parents are counting the days until the grand babies are born.

Ry and Jen will welcome little Abigail in two to three weeks. Jen is doing well and despite being almost ready to deliver she continues to do and teach yoga. I am suspecting that her training will come in might handy when she is in labor.

Lenny and Kel will welcome Julia Bernice in three to four weeks time. Kel too is doing well with her pregnancy...working 40 plus hours a week along with keeping a house clean and ready to show (it's for sale). Kel's one complaint is that little Julie Bernice keeps kicking her with those danged long legs!

And the expectant dad's...well I am sure they are anxious to have their little girls here so that they can spoil them. And David and I...well that goes without saying.

Jen reports that there is a folk lore saying women tend to go into labor when the moon is full. We just completed a full moon but their is another on September 15th...a few days after Jen's expected due date and a few days before Kel's. Now how interesting would it be to have both mom's deliver on the same day!

The 'expectant' full moon

And the sun shinning through after the babies arrive.

Summer Festivities

Our small town draws a huge crowd every Wednesday with their Turtle Races. This town has a population of 120 or so and is made up of about 4 driving blocks of streets. One day a week during the summer they close off one entire street for the well known and hugely attended Turtle Races.
They not only race turtles, and yes they really do race turtles with prizes for winners as well as having your picture featured in the local paper. Yup they even have a weekly local paper! Anyway, there are other activities during this day like

Hula hoop competitions ........for kids and adults alike.

Turtle hats are very popular.

As are the many other activities

The cars line up well outside of town, so many so that the local grocery store places a sign in it's lot to keep attendees from taking up shopper's spaces.

And, no it may not be the State Fair or the Owatona Fair but it has many of the features of those fairs in a smaller way.

Remer Days is very well attended as I am sure are many of the local 'days' in the northland.

This festival began with the Kiddie Parade...not very impressive is it....to us anyway. The crowd cheered and clapped and just had a good time.

This was followed by the 'real' parade which was much longer and more fun than we expected.

Floats much more unique than any we have seen in a while (who am I kidding, it is the first parade that we have been to in a while!).

This lady is certainly no 'spring chicken' but she could still twirl a baton!

And the north's idea of the Shriner's. OK so they didn't claim to be the Shriner's but they did make figure eights like the Shriner's do.

No parade is complete without wanna be politicians

And this one brought a tear to my eye....a tribute to the local fallen soldiers

Lead by the proud Harley Riders

Who do we think would win this race? Ryan, this reminded me of you in your younger days! Not the tractor no no the other guy.

There was even food on a stick. A pork chop on a stick and it was great. Fresh cut state fair type french fries, corn dogs, fresh squeezed lemonade and Mikey, the brats that we loved last year. Oh by the way....remember that 80 year old lady that you met last year and told her you would see her this year? She was looking for you!

Thursday Jessica is coming for a visit. I am excited to share what we have accomplished up here with her. Jess is one of the people that has seen our little slice of heaven from the very beginning and will be amazed at how it looks now I am sure. We would love to show it off to our other friends...come on up. Fall is a beautiful time up here you know!

The New Pedicure Rage

It seems that some folks pay lots of cash to put their feet in a pan containing little fish. The fish eat the dead skin off of your feet and make them soft as a baby's butt. That's what they said on Good Morning America anyway!

I on the other hand have my own private fish-a-cure and it happens to be free. All I have to do is sit on the dock while the dogs swim and let the sunfish nibble away!

A weird feeling to be sure. These fish barely move when Tack swims through them. In fact they follow her for a bit and then come right back to the feet hanging in the water.

These sunfish enticed Peeko to swim. He has always loved the water...as long as it didn't touch his chest. For about two days he stood on the dock looking at these fish in the water

And then one day he took the leap

Made a splash

And by golly much to his surprise he was swimming!

I sat on that dock and laughed out loud at him. He wasn't real sure of himself at first, jumping in only far enough to think he was going to 'catch' a fish. But now after three days I can't get him out of the water. Today he swam continually for 45 minutes while I sat on the dock knitting and Tackla ran around. Yup, he even out swims our water dog Tack.

Because David is still down south working on the little house...he is busting butt to get it done so that he can come home and stay home...I am finding that I have to entertain myself.

Today was spent getting lost in a little podunk town that has a population of maybe 300. They had city wide garage sales (what a bust those sales were...Chrissy you didn't miss a thing)! I found myself in the 'residential' section of town totally turned around and disoriented! I did find my way out, knew that I would, but for a bit I felt like..well how a kid playing pin the tail on the donkey must feel like. Blindfolded, spun around and dizzy! Too funny actually. I called Jess to get directions but she was of NO help...LOL.

I did find a great trading post joint. I have never seen so much 'stuff' in one place. This joint is a block long and is filled overfull with stuff. Mary...tons of garden art. I did walk the length of the building..no lights, a narrow walkway only as it was filled with stuff, and I was sure I was going to fall through the floor boards. It was an experience and I will be sure to take David when he comes home.

We've got an 8 or 10 point buck at our mineral lick. I have the tripod set up and am hoping to get a picture of him...no luck as of yet.

Planted 10 additional flowers yesterday. The gardens are filling up. This fall I will move plants around once we get a strategic plan to my madness.....Mary you are wearing off on me! Every fall Mary digs up and moves most of her plants and then she gives some to me! I also need one if not two more raised vegetable beds. My tomatoes are much too close together and all though we will get lots of them they aren't going to get very big I am afraid.

Today feels like a stay at home, no getting lost knitting day. The weather is great up here. I hope you all enjoy your day.